Screening tools

Mental-health screeners are useful, and they are limited. Useful: a well-validated screener can give you a clearer picture of what you (or your child) might be carrying, in a way that the worry running on a loop at 2am usually cannot. Limited: a number on a screener is never a diagnosis. It is a starting point for a conversation, not the answer.

I host seven of the screeners I use most often in clinical work, free to use, no email required. Take them privately, take them honestly, and bring whatever comes up to a clinician you trust. If you would like that clinician to be me, the free 15-minute Meet & Greet via /book/ is the easiest first step.

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For adults

• ASRS-v1.1, Adult ADHD self-report (full 18-item). The full WHO Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale: 6-item Part A screener plus 12-item Part B symptom checklist, with DSM-5 inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity counts.
• GAD-7, generalised anxiety. Seven items, established as a primary-care screener for generalised anxiety; also picks up overlapping anxiety presentations.
• PHQ-9 + GAD-7, depression and anxiety, combined. The two most widely used adult mental-health screens in one form. Useful when both mood and worry are in the picture, which is most of the time. Severity bands for each, plus a built-in safety prompt for PHQ-9 item 9.
• AQ-10, adult autism spectrum screen. A brief 10-item self-report screen, recommended by NICE as a first-pass for adults wondering whether autism assessment might fit. A low score does not rule autism out, many autistic adults, especially those who have learned to mask, score below the cut-off.
• DASS-21, depression, anxiety, and stress. Three short scales in one questionnaire. A useful first pass when more than one of those three is in the picture.

For children, teens, and parents

• SCARED, child and adolescent anxiety. The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders. Covers separation anxiety, generalised anxiety, social anxiety, panic, and school avoidance, with both child-report and parent-report forms.
• PHQ-A, adolescent depression. The adolescent version of the Patient Health Questionnaire, used widely in primary-care and school mental-health settings.
• SDQ, children and adolescents. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. A broad-band screener covering emotional symptoms, conduct, hyperactivity, peer relationships, and prosocial behaviour.
• SDQ Teacher Report, for educators. The teacher-report companion to the SDQ. Multi-informant data is part of why a thorough child or adolescent assessment includes school input where possible.

How I use these in clinical practice

In my own work, screeners do three things. They give the first session a starting frame. They surface presentations that the verbal interview alone might miss (some adults speak more honestly to a questionnaire than to a clinician they have just met). And they let me track change session-by-session in a structured way, especially for anxiety and OCD, where progress can otherwise feel hard to feel.

What screeners do not do: they do not diagnose. A high score is information, not a label. It tells us where to look more carefully, what differentials to take seriously, and which structured-interview content to prioritise in a formal assessment.

If a screener score worries you

If a result on one of these screeners surfaces something that feels heavy, that is information worth doing something with. The 15-minute Meet & Greet via /book/ is free and is the easiest place to think it through together.

If active safety is the concern, suicidal thoughts, self-harm urges, urges to harm others, please reach out to Samaritans of Singapore at 1767 (24-hour) or IMH Mental Health Helpline at 6389 2222 (24-hour) first. Crisis support comes before assessment.

For broader context on how I think about assessment versus screening, see the psychological assessment hub. For the specific anxiety/OCD route, see anxiety and OCD assessment.